MY CREATIONIST TESTIMONY

Note: This interview of me was conducted and published by Creation Ministries, International. I have a strong interest in and commitment to Six-day Creation as an important feature of the biblical worldview. The interview was conducted by Lita Cosner, Information Officer for CMI.

Dr Ken Gentry has recently retired from the pastorate after 37 years of ministry in conservative, evangelical Presbyterian churches. He has been married to his wife, Melissa, since 1971. They have three grown children who are all Christians, and six grandchildren.

Ken holds a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Tennessee Temple College (Chattanooga, TN), an M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson), and Th.M. and Th.D. degrees in New Testament from Whitefield Theological Seminary (Lakeland, FL). He has spoken at over 100 conferences throughout America, the Caribbean, and Australia. He is the author of over 20 books, and is committed to the full inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture and a holistic Christian worldview founded in Genesis 1–3.

LC: Would you tell me about your conversion to faith in Christ?

KG: I was saved by God’s grace as a result of my parents’ divorce when I was 16. My uncle (my mother’s brother) was a pastor and saw the turmoil in my life. Consequently, he paid to send me to a one-week youth ranch in Boca Raton, Florida. On the first night that I was there, I heard the first clear presentation of the Gospel I had ever heard, and the Lord used the message to open my heart to Him. As a child I had attended a somewhat liberal church where I only heard the very basics of Scripture, but without any strong call to believe its message.

Presents the exegetical evidence for Six-day Creation and against the Framework Hypothesis. Strong presentation and rebuttal to the Framework Hypothesis, while demonstrating and defending the Six-day Creation interpretation.

After my parents’ divorce (and my salvation), my mother moved back to her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. There we joined my uncle’s church where a conservative approach to Scripture was preached. I was very excited about my new life in Christ and became deeply interested in learning about the Bible.

When I graduated from high school, however, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life or what I should study in college. In my first year I was an art major; in my next two years I was an engineering major. Neither of these endeavours interested me as a life calling though. So I enrolled in a local Christian college (Tennessee Temple College) where I majored in Biblical Studies and eventually received a B.A. degree in that field.

While studying Scripture more academically, I realized how much I wanted to learn more about the Bible so that I might teach it to others. When I graduated from college I went off to seminary with the idea of becoming a professor in a Christian college. But as I studied more deeply in Scripture, the Lord convicted me that I should teach Christians of all ages, not just those of college age.

Through this deep interest and conviction, I prayerfully went into pastoral ministry. I was a pastor for 37 years and retired in March 2016 to engage in full-time research and writing in biblical studies.

LC: Were you always a young-earth creationist, or did you struggle with other views? Was your young-earth view ever challenged in your education?

By God’s grace, my first church as a born-again Christian was strongly conservative and deeply biblical. Therefore I was taught early on in my Christian life and experience the biblical doctrine of six-day creation. I never had committed to evolution, though I was aware of the scientific challenges to the biblical view.

It seemed obvious to me that if I accepted the New Testament message of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection that I must also accept the biblical revelation regarding six-day creation. Especially since Jesus himself cited Genesis 1 and 2 in declaring that man was created “from the beginning of creation” (Mark 10:6–7). If it was good enough for Jesus, it was good enough for me.

Given my conversion as a teenager, my membership in a Bible-believing church, my enrolment in a conservative Christian college, and my early calling to ministry, I did not have any struggles with biblical creation. It was a part of my salvation outlook and Christian academic training. Of course, I have learned much more about the proper exegesis of Genesis through my deeper studies, so some of my earlier interpretations were altered by strengthening.

LC: As a pastor, why do you think it is important for Christians to understand biblical (six-day) creation and a global Flood?

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